Wilderness

On September 3, 1964, President Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law, protecting the country’s wildest places for generations to come. The landmark conservation law protects nearly 110 million acres of U.S. wilderness – 20 million of them within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

You can explore wilderness on 63 refuges in 26 states. About 90 percent of the Refuge System’s wilderness is in Alaska. Some refuge wilderness areas – such as Great Swamp in New Jersey and Fort Niobrara in Nebraska – are surprisingly near urban centers.